Google Buzz has certainly been generating lots of buzz.  Here are some privacy tips that you have been clamoring for.

Disabling Buzz - Go to the very bottom of the page.  There is a link that says “turn off buzz.”

Removing a Follower - Right above your posting text box, there is a link that says “# followers”.  You can then click the “Unfollow” link to remove the person.

Blocking a Follower - Going a step further you can click on any name in your buzz and they will show up at the top of your page with links to “Unfollow” and “Block [name].” 

It has been noted that blocking a user may not work.  If the person has a Google Profile, you can block them; however, if the person has not yet setup a Google Profile, they will remain unblocked no matter what you do.  Google dropped the ball on this one.

Limiting who can see your Buzz - You can choose who can see your posts on a per post basis by setting up contact groups.

Posted via web from jasonishibashi's posterous

Shinsengumi pictures are posted on Facebook.  After I do some editing and adding of metadata, I'll also add them to Flickr so you can grab better quality photos.

Posted via web from jasonishibashi's posterous

I remember Macromedia Flash 5 with ActionScripting 1.0. WOW!  This is the future of the Internet.  This will really open up the possibilities to developers.  Or so I thought.

Ten years later we still have this proprietary, resource hogging, buggy standard we call Adobe Flash.  I don't blame Adobe in anyway; they do the best they can.  I blame ourselves, the developers.  We have all the power and time to create an open standard, but we sit by and watch DHTML fall and HTML5 flounder.

Since we drag our feet, developers have no choice but to continue developing in Flash.  I grant you, there are some great things being done in Flash:

1. Video containers
2. Photo galleries and slideshows
3. Games

But the fact simple fact that any semblance of Flash nails my Core2 Duo to the roof tells us all we need to know about this standard.  There is something really wrong with it.

The Apple iPad, frustrating as it may be, rightly omits Flash from Mobile Safari.  Besides being a resource hog, Flash is buggy beyond belief in almost all flavors (different browsers and different operating systems).  Battery concerns aside, I support Apple's philosophical stand in forcing change at the annoyance of their own customers.

I said before, the Apple iPad is not about flexibility or power.  It's simply a device that is supposed to provide one, easy way to get a task done.  Maybe you don't agree it's the best way, but if you're about to adapt and evolve, then you need a more flexible platform than the iPad.  This device is not for you.

The Apple iPad is a closed system that is supposed to provide it's users the best user experience to the tasks they commonly need to accomplish.  By definition opening up the system introduces confusion, complication, and contradiction.  Flash introduces all three of these unwelcome concepts.

Give me HTML5 (or some widely accepted open standard), and Apple will give you rich content in Safari.

Posted via web from jasonishibashi's posterous

The target audience for the iPad?  Baby Boomers.  Steve Jobs invented a device for his people.  An APPLICATION COMPUTER.

Posted via web from jasonishibashi's posterous

In my last post I argued the iPad is aimed at a new Target Audience.  Who is that exactly?

First, let's get the obvious out of the way:

1. Apple FanGeeks
2. Technophiles
3. CEOs

The Apple FanGeeks will buy a nice pile of steaming poo if it had an Apple logo on it.  Don't be insulted; that's just the way it is.  The sooner you can admit this to yourself, the easier it will be to accept who you are.  By the way, we know you'll buy the Wi-Fi version in 59 days and then buy the 3G version 30 days after that, and that's what makes Steve Jobs a brilliant marketer and sales guru.

Technophies and gadget lovers will buy this device because it's in their blood.  Love it or hate it, you'll still buy it because you're curious; at the very least you'll buy it to publicly post how much you hate everything about it as you continue to use it day in and day out.  You too, might also buy both versions.

CEOs like to be up on the current trends and they have the money to make it look like they're hip to what's new.  Some might be legit technophiles, but most like the status symbol of carrying around a hot-market item.

Posted via web from jasonishibashi's posterous

Yesterday, I said I was underwhelmed.  I think a lot of other people were too.  Many people probably had grandiose expectations from a company and visionary the likes of Apple and Steve Jobs, and many people assumed the new iPad would be a revolution in computing that would make us all ditch our netbooks and laptops; it clearly does not.

No, the iPad is probably something akin to what Jef Raskin had in mind when it comes to the human interface to a computer.

Is the iPad powerful?  Questionably.  Flexible?  Definitely not.  Adaptable?  Not without Apple's say-so.

Much of the detraction I hear about the iPad is that it can't do x, or that it will never be able to do y.  Here's where I (and it seems many other people) are missing the point.  It's not supposed to.

Steve Jobs clearly places the iPad in a space that is not yet defined and a supplement to the other technical devices we use.  It's not meant to replace the laptop, and by correlation the cheaper, less powerful laptop we dubbed the netbook.  The iPad is aimed directly at a new target audience.

Posted via web from jasonishibashi's posterous

Posted via web from jasonishibashi's posterous